We hope this information helps physicians make more informed,
strategic decisions in their career and practice. And we hope these
statistics help healthcare executives, industry thought leaders and
media professionals better understand the attitudes, challenges and
opportunities physicians face.

There were a number of statistically significant (and
interesting) findings in our 2014 study.

In this piece, we highlight 51 statistics that emerged from our
look at physicians reporting compensation increases (12 percent of
participants) versus those reporting a decrease in compensation (45
percent of participants) from 2013 to 2014.

We will not look at trends related to the 43 percent who
reported no change in income.

Physicians whose INCOME DECREASED in the past
year are more likely than those whose income increased to:

Demographics

1. Be age 45+ (85 percent of those whose income has decreased
vs. 72 percent of those whose income has increased)

38. Say the outlook for a career in medicine in 2014 is
generally favorable (45 percent vs. 14 percent)

39. Say they are very satisfied with their careers in medicine
(45 percent vs. 16 percent)

40. Say the number of patients they see in an office visit
during the past year has increased (43 percent vs. 20 percent)

41. Say they chose hospital employment over private practice
because they wanted to be doctors, not business people (41 percent
vs. 17 percent)

42. Say they use nurse practitioners (41 percent vs. 31
percent)

43. Say they have partnerships in place with insurers, hospitals
and local companies to provide care to their patients (41 percent
vs. 32 percent)

44. Say they use physician assistants (40 percent vs. 28
percent)

45. Say they are very likely to recommend a career in the field
to a young person (35 percent vs. 11 percent)

46. Say they see/care for/round on more patients in a single
hospital shift (33 percent vs. 17 percent)

47. Say they work 8 hours a day (26 percent vs. 16 percent)

48. Be a hospital employee (26 percent vs. 12 percent)

49. Say they use foreign medical graduates (16 percent vs. 6
percent)

Affordable Care Act

50. Say they are planning to participate as a provider in the
health insurance exchanges (59 percent vs. 49 percent)

51. Say that as the ACA has been implemented that they have
added patients who have obtained insurance through the exchanges
(26 percent vs. 16 percent) or to say they have had had no changes
to their patient panels (59 percent vs. 45 percent)

Final Thoughts

While this list contains some obvious statistics (naturally
physicians with increasing income are more likely to be satisfied
with their careers than those whose income is decreasing) it also
contains statistics that align with broader trends seen in other
Jackson Healthcare and industry research.

With the shift from private practice ownership to employment
continuing throughout the U.S., the impacts of decreasing
reimbursements, billing & collection hassles and lifestyle
choices are apparent throughout these 51 statistics.